You, Me, Dating
by pumpkaboo
Summary: Steve is just in the background of Sam and Bucky's impending relationship.


Sam didn't think that Bucky was charming. Bucky wasn't charming. Bucky was an awful little shit. It just so happened that Sam lived with Steve, and with Steve came Bucky.

Bucky was simply obnoxious.

All he could do was question what caused Steve and him to be friends. With everything Steve had told him, he had expected the total opposite of what he got. Obviously he expected Bucky to be different from what Steve said, simply because of what happened to him, but no. While Steve went off to meetings and to make amends with the other Avengers, Sam was stuck at home with Bucky.

But all that aside, he never thought he would end up liking the guy. Even just a little bit.

He guessed it all started when Bucky started sleeping in his bed. They never spoke about it, Sam never questioned it. Bucky would come in, usually ten minutes after Sam went to bed, and just lie next to him.

Steve never mentioned it. He didn't seem phased by it. Sam was sure that it was something Bucky and Steve spoke about, but never told him. There were heaps of things he would often feel left out of. Not that he would say anything or do anything about it. He understood that the two of them needed their time alone to work things out. He respected that.

Anyway, it wasn't like he saw Bucky that much. He was usually hiding out in Steve's room during the day, only leaving the room for food, and during the night, although Bucky would sleep in his bed, Sam was asleep, so he still didn't have to deal with him.

But still, he had to admit, he liked not living alone.

...

"Why did you start sleeping in my bed?" Sam asked Bucky one morning. He rinsed his empty coffee cup out and set it back in the sink.

Bucky placed Steve's juice carton back in the fridge, making sure it sat the same way Steve left it last. "The first time? I think I just forgot which one was Steve's room" he replied, looking like he was really thinking about it.

Sam frowned. Not convinced. Bucky was a lot smarter than he let on.

"I was..." he shrugged. "I guess I was just feeling confused. I was tired. There was a bed. I don't care which bed I'm in. As long as I can rest..." he tapered off, looking nervous and rubbing his left shoulder where the arm was missing. "Why?"

"Curious" Sam replied casually. "

Steve walked into the kitchen. "Mornin'" he smiled. How was Steve always so chipper of a morning? Sam guessed he would never know.

"Sleep well?" Bucky asked

"I did. Thank you."

Sam looked at Steve. "Actually, you know what?"

Steve looked from the fridge to Sam. "Hm?"

"You look like you been sleeping better."

Bucky looked around at Sam. "What are you implying?"

"Well, I'm just saying since you haven't been sleeping in his bed, he definitely looks like he has been actually sleeping."

Bucky jumped onto the island counter, sitting at the edge.

"Get down.

"No."

Sam stared at him. What an obnoxious-

Bucky took that as a cue to continue. "I like this spot. I always sit on it."

"Really?" Sam asked.

"He was naked yesterday" Steve sighed.

Sam stared at him. "No."

Bucky looked back at Steve. "Anyway-"

"Don't try and change the subject on me" Sam said. "Really Bucky? Really? Are you kidding me? You sat on the bench with your naked ass?"

"Don't scold him" Steve said, coming in to defend his oldest friend.

"Thank you" Bucky said, looking at Steve.

Sam shook his head. Bucky could give him the kicked puppy look and he would never buy it. Bucky was too cold and calculating. Steve just acted like Bucky was always innocent.

Steve opened the fridge and picked up the juice. He frowned deeply, muttering something to himself.

Bucky pulled a bit of a worried face, looking away quickly.

"Guilty" Sam muttered.

Bucky gave a small one-shoulder shrug.

Steve looked at the two of them as though they had plotted against him. It was a look of pure confusion. "Bucky?"

Bucky looked at Steve, perfectly practiced pout on point. "It was Sam. Saw him earlier."

Steve seemed surprised, but looked at Sam. "You didn't did you?"

Sam had never been so frustrated in his whole life. "I didn't drink the juice."

Bucky looked at him, brow raised. "Don't lie to Steve."

"That is it. You climb in my bed tonight, I will beat you down."

Steve looked between the two of them. Sam could tell he was trying to determine who was being honest.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Bucky literally just drank it before you walked in. He even set it back so it looked like you were the last one who drank it."

Steve looked at Bucky with a strong look of betrayed, while Bucky looked back at him with big round eyes.

"Don't try and look so cute and innocent."

Bucky whipped his head around and looked at Sam, a stupid grin on his face. "You think that's cute do you?"

Sam shook his head. "No. But Steve will fall for it."

Steve set the empty juice carton next to Bucky. "Looks like you owe me one new carton of juice."

Bucky lay back on the counter, looking at Sam upside down. "If you think I'm cute I don't mind" he whispered.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I think you need reevaluate your life."

...

It was around midnight when Bucky basically slid into Sam's bed. Sam was irritated. "Get out of my bed" Sam grunted.

Bucky looked at him. "No."

Sam narrowed his eyes, glaring at Bucky and shaking his head, not that Bucky even seemed to care.

Bucky yawned and leaned his head on Sam's pillow, wrapping his arm over Sam's waist.

Sam felt his whole body tense. Bucky had slept in the bed next to him every night for the last six weeks or so, but never once had he actually hugged Sam. He rarely even lay close enough to be touching him. Sam peered over his shoulder, but Bucky had already fallen asleep. Sam decided that he wouldn't question this and he would just pretend it didn't happen.

...

Bucky always took way too long in the shower. He would just stand in there. Sam had walked in on him more times than he would like to admit, just because Bucky was so quiet, and the shower running could easily be mistaken for the tap. The water pressure in the shower was really shit.

Today was another one of those days.

"Oh goddamn. Can you at least lock the door when you're in here?" Sam asked Bucky.

Bucky just looked around at him and shrugged. "I would, but the lock was giving me grief the other day and I broke it."

"And you didn't think to mention this?"

Bucky shook his head. "Steve doesn't lock the door, so I didn't think about it."

"Huh. Okay. I see how it is."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Really? You wanna play it that way?"

"No, I mean, you and Steve just... you talk stuff out and-"

"I didn't mean to make you feel left out" Bucky said.

Sam stopped. "Wait... what?" He had never felt more surprised in his life. Was this... an apology?

"That wasn't my intent. I just... Steve... I have known him... I knew him..." he turned the shower off. "Sorry... you wanted the shower, huh?"

"That's okay. You're nervous?"

He shrugged. He grabbed his towel off the rack and walked past Sam.

Sam sighed. Bucky never opened up to him. Rarely. He would occasionally open up, but only if Steve was very close by.

Sam, although not having a friendship with either of them as long as they had with each other, felt a strange pang of jealousy every time he saw them talking like they did. At first he just ignored it. It was stupid. There was no need to be jealous of his friends friendship.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it boiled down to jealousy. He wanted to ignore it, but the more he thought about it (which he would never admit that he did) he realized that he had a crush. On Bucky.

It seemed so obvious when he thought about it. Embarrassingly so.

He was glad he was going to see his sister today so he didn't have to think about this shit.

...

"How was she?" Steve asked, looking up from his microwave meal.

"Good. Steve... what the hell are you eating?" Steve never ate microwave meals.

"Its mac and cheese. Bucky picked them up the other day. Not as bad as it looks" he admitted.

"Huh."

"There is another one in-"

He held up a bag. "My sister gave me enough leftovers to last at least a few days."

"That's nice of her."

"She just cooks way too much" he chuckled. He put the bag on the bench and put the containers in the fridge. "Steve?"

"Hm?" he looked over at him.

"You think I could... maybe talk something over with you?" he asked, trying to look like he was confident. He knew it wasn't working.

"Of course" Steve said.

Sam sat down across from him. "I..." he looked around the room.

"I hope you're not having a breakdown" Steve asked, concern in his voice.

"No. Jesus Steve-"

"Did Bucky say something to you?"

"No-"

"Okay. Did something happen at your sisters?"

"No. No. Its... I wanna keep this between us."

Steve frowned. "Um... okay, sure."

"I think..." he shuddered. Saying it out loud like this was the stupidest thing he had ever done. "I have a Bucky on crush."

Steve frowned. "What does that mean?"

Sam looked down at the table, looking at the stab mark that Bucky had put in it during an episode he had. "I have a crush on Bucky" he basically ground out, embarrassed.

"Okay. Well, I expected this."

Sam flinched in surprise, looking at Steve like he had grown a second. "Uh... what?"

"Well, he likes you too" Steve said way too casually.

"Are we really having this conversation?"

"I think so."

Sam shook his head. "I think I am either dying of embarrassment, or I am about to slip into a food coma" Sam sighed.

"The amazing way your sister cooks... probably both" Steve said.

"How do you know that he likes me?" Sam asked warily.

"He told me."

"You spoke about this?"

"Of course. Bucky tells me pretty much everything."

"He does?"

"Course. That's what friends do."

"But everything?" he stressed.

Steve smiled a little knowingly. "Bucky is surprisingly pretty open with me."

Sam nodded. He should have known. Of course they were.

"Hey, don't feel left out of the loop. Mostly its just things he remembers from before. He talks about you a lot though" Steve smiled. "Just don't tell him I told you. He might kill me."

Sam smiled. God he was glad that Steve and Bucky talked. He really had to think of an appropriate way to thank Steve if anything between Bucky and him ever transpired.

Steve threw the empty container in the bin. "Well, I am gonna turn in. Might read for a bit" he decided. "Bucky downloaded some books onto my tablet. He is pretty good with this technology thing."

Sam nodded. "He does spend a lot of time on the tablet."

Steve chuckled. "I shouldn't be surprised. Well, I'll see you in the morning."

"You aren't heading out tomorrow?"

"Nah." He stretched his arms above his head. "Night Sam." He grabbed a paperback from the coffee table on his way up to his room.

"That's not the tablet" Sam grinned.

"What do you mean?" Steve grinned, joining in the banter. He looked down at the novel. "Are you sure?"

"Y'know, maybe not."

Steve chuckled and walked into his room, closing the door.

Sam stood up and made his way to his room. He was feeling tired. Not that the drive to and from his sisters was far, it was more the fact that he had spent time catching up with his family, eating and generally having a great time. That plus the drive was overall very tiring.

Sam closed the bedroom door behind him gently. He was surprised that Bucky was already lying in his bed. As usual he was lying on his stomach, arm wrapped awkwardly over the pillow. Sam walked over and smiled. Bucky was attractive. Even though he admitted it to Steve, just thinking about it was every level of awkward. Of all people it had to be Bucky.

Dammit Bucky.

He undressed and pulled his pajama pants on. He was so ready for bed.

"Sam?"

He looked at Bucky. "Yeah?"

"You're home."

"And you're asleep before midnight."

Bucky shrugged. "Yeah. I was."

"Have you been in bed all day?"

He shook his head. "No. I lay on the lounge for a bit. And when I had lunch I sat on the island counter."

"Naked?"

"You want me to be?"

Sam shook his head. "No. No."

"Well, you're in luck. I wasn't. Didn't shower today." Sam pulled the sheets back to climb into bed, but let out a surprised squeak when Bucky was literally buck naked. "You said you weren't naked."

"That was earlier. I'm naked now."

Sam was secretly glad that it was just Bucky's ass. It wasn't that he hadn't seen Bucky naked before. It was just awkward every time he did.

"Pants."

"Yeah, you should definite put on pants."

"No, my pants. You're wearing my pants."

Sam looked down at the pants he had pulled on. "Oh. Well, there you go." He took them off and chucked them to Bucky who sat up to pull them on.

Sam pulled his own pants on this time, looking at Bucky who was managing well. It was actually quite amazing how Bucky dressed himself one armed. He hadn't gone to physiotherapists or occupational therapists, he just practiced for sometimes hours at a time getting dressed and undressed.

Bucky lay back on his stomach. "So, how was your day?"

"You're chatty."

Bucky chuckled. "I think I am just in a mood."

"I like it" he said, not looking at Bucky, feeling a bit too cautious.

Bucky touched his hand, a small smile on his face.

Goddammit, why the hell was Bucky's smile so freaking charming? Since when did he smile like that? Since Bucky told Steve that he liked him?

Sam sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from Bucky. "Um..." he breathed out slowly. How was he going to say anything he wanted to without either humiliating himself or making Bucky uncomfortable? Bucky was a pretty private person. Not shy, but reserved.

Bucky shuffled around behind him, his hand resting on Sam's shoulder. "Sam-"

Sam tensed up. Bucky was touching him. Softly. Gently.

"I like you Bucky" Sam said, the words tumbling from his mouth before he could stop them.

"I know" Bucky replied, his voice quiet, but soft.

"No, I mean... I like you like you. Like, I wanna date you."

"I know."

He looked over his shoulder at Bucky. He was surprised at how human Bucky looked. His expression was relaxed, although he wasn't smiling (he rarely smiled, saving his genuine smiles for Steve mostly, and that was okay with Sam).

Bucky squeezed Sam's shoulder softly, comfortingly. He leaned over and placed a light kiss on the nape of Sam's neck. "I know" he repeated. "And I like you too."

Sam smiled. At least Steve wasn't playing some sort of weird prank on him. Not that that would be very Steve like.

"I'm surprised it took you so long" Bucky whispered before flopping back down into the mattress.

"You could have just told me" Sam said, laying next to him.

Bucky shrugged. "I thought you'd just say it." He rolled onto his side, facing Sam. "And I thought if I told you... you wouldn't... I thought you'd disregard my feelings."

"Am I really that bad?"

Bucky shook his head. "No. But one can never be sure."

Sam nodded. He could accept that answer. "How long?" he asked curiously.

Bucky shrugged. "Don't know. A while. Maybe just after we moved here."

Sam was surprised by the answer. He hadn't expected it to have been going on that long.

Bucky leaned his head against Sam's shoulder, yawning. "You should get some sleep too, Sam."

He nodded. "Yeah, planning on it." He closed his eyes, a smile playing on his lips.

...

Sam rubbed his eyes sleepily. He looked next to him. "Bucky?" he mumbled.

Bucky peered out from under the duvet, bleary-eyed. "Mm?"

"Did... last night happen?"

"What happened?" Bucky asked, frowning, voice heavy with sleep.

"You. Me. Dating?"

"Oh, yeah, that happened." He rubbed his eyes before shuffling closer to hug Sam. He closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

Sam had to admit, Bucky was so peaceful and goddamn good looking, but he also had to piss really bad. He managed to escape Bucky's one armed vice grip and make a run for the bathroom.

...

When Sam made it was to the kitchen Steve was already sitting down, eating toast, a glass of juice sitting next to the tablet. "Mornin' Sam."

"Good morning" he grinned.

Steve smiled knowingly, but said nothing.

Bucky walked in and sat at the table.

"Good work" Steve praised him.

Bucky rolled his eyes and looked at Sam. "You makin' breakfast?" he yawned.

"Maybe." Sam opened the fridge to see a new juice carton in it with a note.

'Sorry for drinking your juice. -Bucky'

"You're being charming all of a sudden?" he asked, showing Bucky the carton.

Bucky looked at him. "I'm always charming."

Sam chuckled. "Sure you are."

"You think I am."

"Only sometimes."

Steve chuckled. "You guys are too much. Guessing you two talked it out?"

"No idea what you're talking about" Bucky replied, deadpan expression on point.

Sam hid his grin from Steve. "Yeah Steve, what?"

Steve looked down at his tablet, a mixture of confusion and betrayal on his face. "How..?" he muttered, shaking his head.

Bucky flashed Sam a smirk while Steve continued having some sort of inner crisis.


End file.
